Wicker spent 14 years as north Mississippi's 1st District congressman, and Republican Gov. Haley Barbour appointed him to temporarily fill the Senate seat after Lott abruptly retired last December to become a lobbyist.

Both national parties spent millions of dollars on the Wicker-Musgrove race, and the candidates ran tough ads that picked apart each other's records.

Wicker called Musgrove a failed governor who left the budget in shambles and allowed jobs to evaporate. Musgrove said Wicker helped enrich his own former congressional staffers who moved onto private companies that received government contracts.